


Home is Where the Heart is

by BearSpirit



Category: Lost
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-31
Updated: 2015-01-31
Packaged: 2018-03-09 19:18:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,439
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3261341
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BearSpirit/pseuds/BearSpirit
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Give me two weeks."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Home is Where the Heart is

Those two weeks came and went, and Juliet didn’t notice. Or at least, Sawyer didn’t think she did. On the fourteenth day, the last day he had made her promise she would stay with him, she hadn’t said a word about it. And James didn’t mention it, selfishly hoping she had completely forgotten about her plans to leave the island.

For three years, Juliet had been stuck here, living with the Others and quietly wanting nothing more than to leave. And now here he was, standing in her way. Just another roadblock in her humble dream of going home. Home. Well, as close as one could get to home, in 1974. But he didn’t want to be alone.

The entire day, Juliet worked at the garage as if it were any other ordinary day in the DHARMA Initiative. She would have been more useful in the hospital, of course, but letting everyone know she was a doctor would only lead to more questions, that could easily unravel Sawyer’s entire story. The key to any good con is consistency. As far as anyone beyond himself, Jin, and Miles were concerned, Juliet was just a ship hand. But she didn’t mind; she was leaving soon and once she was off the island, she could be anyone she damn well pleased.

That night, a few hours after she hadn’t gotten on the submarine, Sawyer settled down in his bed and drew the covers over his chest, staring up at the ceiling. His mind was drifting back to her— her eyes, her voice, her smile— as he waited for sleep to come.

Honestly, he had been trying to get her to stay. Permanently. He didn’t want to be in 1974 any more than she did, but there was nothing he could do to change it. The simple fact of the matter was, whether or not they got on that submarine and finally left this damn island, there was no longer anything for them to go back to. They didn’t belong here; their lives were thirty years from now. And that terrified him.

The only thing he had to hold onto was her. Sure, there was Jin, and there was Miles, but… well, he hated Miles, and Jin wasn’t much of a conversationalist, English or no English.

And Juliet… it was strange to realize this, especially after knowing her for barely over a month, but Juliet felt like home to him. Home. Home as in that feeling safety, comfort, belonging. Contentment. And suddenly, in that very instant as he was staring up at the ceiling, he knew he was in love with her. He didn’t know when it had happened, or what it was about her that had drawn him in, but none of that really mattered. The only thing that mattered was what he felt now.

He had thought, when she hadn’t gotten on the submarine, that maybe, just maybe, she felt it too.

He had been planning to wait for Kate. But he had to face the facts: even if Locke managed to bring her back, the earliest he could expect to see her again was in thirty years. And for what gain? So he could go back to following her around like a lost puppy, all the while she was falling in love with the doctor? By the time Locke finds them, Jack and Kate will have probably gotten married and started a family. Sawyer had said he’d wait for her as long as it takes, but that was before he realized just how much he felt for Juliet.

Kate was off living her life, in a time and a place very, very far from him. Juliet was here. She was now.

James threw back the covers and tossed his legs over the edge of his bed, purposefully collecting his clothes and wriggling into them on his way out the door. He was going to her. He was going to tell her. The cool air prickled his skin and blew his hair out of his eyes as he practically ran off of his porch, stopping only once to pluck a sunflower he had been admiring that afternoon before he arrived at Juliet’s.

He knocked on the door and waited. And waited. “Dammit Blondie, answer the door,” he muttered under his breath. She better not be asleep. His knuckles pounded against the wood for a second time. Maybe she wasn’t home. Where else could she be?

He sighed; eyes closing. He had a pretty good idea where she was.

He found her out on the docks, in the exact same spot she had been sitting two weeks before. She was staring out into the water, at the place where the submarine was usually docked. Her back was to him and her tousled blonde hair glowed white in the moonlight.

Taking a deep breath and fighting back the adolescent butterflies that were rising in his stomach, Sawyer gripped the sunflower tighter and took that first determined step onto the docks. The planks creaked under his shoes as he walked further out over the water and she turned her head ever so slightly to acknowledge his approach, lips turning upward into a soft smile when she saw who it was.

“Hi James,” she said, her eyes following his movements as he stopped behind her.

“Mind if I join you, Juliet?” he asked, his voice in it’s usual low drawl.

She nodded, turning back to look out at the ocean again as he sat down beside her. “Is that for me?”

Sawyer feigned confusion. “Is what for you?”

“The flower,” Juliet replied. “Behind your back.”

He grumbled in annoyance that his attempt to hide the flower was so easily seen through. “Well, it was meant to be a surprise, but…” he sighed, shoving it in her general direction. Much to his embarrassment and disbelief, he realized he was blushing a little.

Juliet laughed, taking the sunflower and bringing it to her nose to smell. Sawyer’s eyes widened and he swallowed nervously. “It’s beautiful,” she said. “Thank you.”

“Yeah, well… I saw it and I just thought… I thought you might like it.”

After a moment, Juliet’s smile faded, remembering why she was out here before James came along. This was where she went whenever she was homesick.

“I missed the submarine today,” she said mildly.

Sawyer let out the breath he hadn’t known he had been holding. “I know. I’m sorry, I should have reminded you.”

“I remembered.”

“Then why are you still here?”

Juliet took a minute to answer. She sank back into her hands and closed her eyes, exhaling softly. “I’ll get on the next one,” she resolved. “What’s another few weeks, anyway? It’s not like I have anything to get back to. At least, not for another thirty years.”

There was something about her tone— something in the way she spoke those words that seemed sad, hopeless, lost— so much so that his arms, acting of their own accord, were around her instantly, holding her closer to him. She hesitated, then rested her head on his shoulder, tension dissolving as she gave into his embrace.

If the world were to have ended right then and there, Sawyer wouldn’t have minded.

“I wanted to go see my sister,” she muttered into the collar of his shirt. “She’s still so young, and she won’t have had cancer. And she’s happy. It’s been so long since I’ve seen her happy. In person, I mean.”

James was lost in silent thought for a moment, then he replied, “My parents are gonna die two years from now. I was eight.” He wasn’t sure why he wanted to tell her this. His past was something he usually preferred to keep to himself. Then again, they had a chance to start over, in 1974. Perhaps Jim LaFleur was more of an open book than James Ford had been. Or maybe it was just her. “There ain’t no place for us back there, not anymore.”

Juliet had been holding herself together so well that Sawyer didn’t even realize she was crying until he felt the tears soak through his sleeve onto his shoulder.

The sunflower hang limply from her hand and brushed against his knee. Juliet lifted her head and chuckled a bit, rubbing the tears from her face before turning to look at Sawyer with a strange new look in her eyes. She tilted her head and said softly, confidently,

“Kiss me, James.”

And that was it. No more going back; no more denial. She had stolen his heart. He was hers, body and soul.

“You got it, Blondie.”


End file.
